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Acute testosterone infusion does not exacerbate arrhythmias in the rat model of ischemia/reperfusion (547.15)
Author(s) -
Dow Joan,
Herring Michael,
Bhandari Anil,
Kloner Robert
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.28.1_supplement.547.15
Subject(s) - medicine , ventricle , ventricular tachycardia , coronary artery occlusion , coronary occlusion , cardiology , occlusion , testosterone (patch) , anesthesia , ventricular fibrillation , ischemia , incidence (geometry) , physics , optics
With increasing direct‐to‐consumer marketing, testosterone (T) prescriptions have tripled over the past decade. Clinical literature suggests that exogenous T use may increase various arrhythmias. Therefore, we examined the effect of exogenous T in an acute rat model of arrhythmias. Methods and Results: Anesthetized female Sprague Dawley rats (250g) were given T (2.5 mg/kg, n=9) or vehicle (n=10) intravenously 15 minutes before 5 minutes of coronary artery occlusion. Rats were then reperfused for 5 minutes and arrhythmias were examined. T levels were measured one minute before occlusion. T levels were different between groups (5.4 ± 1 ng/mL control; 206.9 ± 35 ng/mL T, P < 0.001). The ischemic risk zone as a percentage of the left ventricle did not differ between groups (33 ± 2% control; 29 ± 3% T, P = 0.48). The number of episodes of ventricular tachycardia did not differ between groups (11.7 ± 3.2 control; 8.8 ± 3.0 T, P = 0.3). There was a non‐significant trend toward fewer ventricular premature beats with T (37.8 ± 10.3 control; 16.9 ± 8.9 T, P = 0.06) Conclusion: Despite large differences in T levels between groups, T had little effect on the incidence of arrhythmias, suggesting that T supplementation does not increase risk of arrhythmias.